Talabani, who is race engineer for Andre Heimgartner, has been identified as a casual contact of a positive case and is therefore absent from Sydney Motorsport Park for today's opening Supercars practice sessions.

He'll be allowed back to the track as soon as he returns a negative result to a COVID-19 test, the team hopeful he'll be back in action tomorrow.

Heimgartner's data engineer Phil Le has stepped up to the race engineer role for the #7 Mustang today.

All of the KGR crew were tested before entering the paddock this morning as a precaution.

This the second pandemic-related episode for KGR since the Supercars season resumed in Sydney late last month.

He wasn't expected to return until at least the Bathurst 1000, but after getting both doses of the vaccine was allowed to return to the #26 Mustang at SMP this weekend.